
If you are into some high heat ecchi manga and love to get to know more about manga industry then this is for you!
First time writing a review here or anywhere in general so spare me with my basic vocab.
That being said I've been dying to write a review on this ever since I started reading it few years back. I usually enjoy anime as a medium and very rarely read a manga, If I do read once in a while, it mostly leans towards ecchi genre. This came in my radar when I was playing with Anilist filters - filtering manga which is completed with chapter count less than 100, contains ecchi with rom com as genre, but is not adult, and is from Japan(I know this seems so cringe but yes I did it)
Enough of this prologue, jumping on to the review and my thoughts on it (Minor Spoiler Ahead!)
I know if you are reading this, then you are not for the story, right? You want to know the type of fanservice it offers but bear a little, we are getting there.
Saotome Shimai wa Manga no Tame Nara!? (Saotome Sisters for the Sake of Manga!?) as the description on Anilist says is a screwball ecchi romantic comedy that leans heavily into meta-humor about the manga industry itself. The story follows Mobu Saotome, an aspiring mangaka who writes ecchi series. He is assisted by his two sisters, who are all deeply in love with him(yes obviously!) and serve as his "references" and assistants.
Now the real thing, this is on the levels of what I would say The "Borderline" Mastery - It masterfully walks the line of being NSFW without crossing into hentai by using the "substitute" and "camera pan" techniques.
Much of the humor comes from the protagonist's struggle to remain professional while his sisters treat every drawing session as an opportunity for fanservice, literally sexually assaulting our poor dense MC. And not just the sisters, from the editor to their assistants or friends everyone finds a chance to get naked, or get into situations which may not even feel suitable for a hentai, and this is in every chapter, with no exception. It also may smell like a little incest with just touching that line in the last few chapters, so either you may look up to it or drop, lol
For an ecchi manga, this is probably an important point much more important than the story lol. And they manage to pull it off nicely.
This being focused on manga drawing itself, there was a chapter wherein they detailed on how to make an ecchi manga successful - and that is(you must have guessed is) by making proper Oppais- you need all types from small to big, from normal to inverted, every possible detail you need is there. And with the number of female characters they had, it obviously covered all.
Even the camera shots and substitutes to show the most explicit and perverted content, one can imagine is shown beautifully, not with just the light, but anything they have from a pen to a leaf, they just covered what it could have thrown this into an adult series.
Other than the fanservice I think other designs is pretty average if you are into some beautiful sceneries(but you are not here for that)
This is more in a episodic format, with couple of stories split into multiple parts. So nothing to say much about pacing but yes you still have to read it in order. Last chapters felt they rushed to make it end while I was expecting a better ending so it did hurt a little.
For a very long time, I was searching something to read which does not bore me out, and this awakened something inside me each time I read a new chapter lol, literally reading all the chapters which were out back then.
I love how it kept its high heat premise all the way while at the same time, it also tries to tell you the daily life of a mangaka, although I'm pretty sure they don't get this much fanservice in real life lmao. But on a serious note, there's a lot which goes for even a single volume of manga to come out - from story to drawings, editor's check, and that too for a new mangaka to even stand out with thousands of mangas already beign published.
It's actually a guilty pleasure that is surprisingly "smart" in its execution of tired harem tropes. And will probably sit on top of my manga list for a very long time, and I have to definitely give this a re-read without long breaks since English version is now completely out.
That's all from my side. Thank you for reading! If you love ecchi series, then do check this out, the chapter count is less so will not take much of your time.
Also be focused folks, and as Mobu sensei says train hard lol!
